The disclosed embodiments relate to a system and method for processing a barcode font call. The system includes an interpreter support system communicating with a barcode font call-processing program. As disclosed, each job containing certain barcode related information is processed with the barcode font call-processing program so that a barcode font call can be delivered by the interpreter support system to the interpreter.
Bar code symbols are typically printed directly on an object or on labels attached to the object. The bar code symbols are read by optical techniques, such as scanning laser beams or CCD cameras, and the resulting electrical signals are decoded into data representative of the symbol for further processing. Bar code reading systems are known as “open” systems in that the carrier while being read is not sealed, but is read from a distance and without being in physical contact with the scanner.
The conventional bar code described above is “one-dimensional” in that the information encoded therein is represented by the width of the bars and spaces, which extend in a single dimension. Thus, a bar code of a supermarket item, for example, consists of a string of eleven digits, which represent an identifying number, but not a description of the item. The remainder of the relevant information, such as the price, name of the product, manufacturer, weight, inventory data, and expiration date, must be obtained from a database using the identification number.
An early disclosure of barcode symbology was disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 1,985,035 to Kermode, and that disclosure was expanded shortly thereafter in U.S. Pat. No. 2,020,925 to Young. These early symbologies were printed by generating a multiplicity of single width elements of lower reflectance, or “bars,” which were separated by elements of higher reflectance, or “spaces.” An “element” is a bar or space. These early symbologies, and many “bar code symbologies” used today can be referred to as “linear symbologies” because data in a given symbol is decoded along one axis or direction. Symbologies such as linear symbologies encode “data characters” (e.g., human readable characters) as “symbol characters,” which are generally parallel arrangements of alternating bars and spaces that form unique groups of patterns to encode specific data characters. “Data characters” include not only human readable characters, but also include special function characters such as start, stop or shift characters that provide certain functional data. Each unique group or pattern of bars and spaces within a predetermined width defines a particular symbol character, and thus a particular data character or characters.
The known U.P.C. symbology can be described generically as a (7, 2) “n, k code.” An “n,k code” is defined as a symbology where each symbol character has “k” number of bars and spaces and whose total length is “n” modules long. Therefore, the U.P.C. symbology encodes two bars and two spaces in each symbol character and each symbol character is seven modules long. A “module” is the narrowest nominal width unit of measure in a bar code symbology (a one-wide bar or space). “Nominal” refers to the intended value of a specific parameter, regardless of printing errors, etc. Under common counting techniques, the number of possible symbol characters can be found by realizing that in seven modules, there are six locations where a transition can occur, and that for two bars and two spaces, there are three internal transitions. Therefore, the number of unique symbol characters for the U.P.C. symbology is simply 6 choose 3 which equals 20. Similarly, under the Code 128 symbology, which is an (11, 3) symbology, 252 unique symbol characters are available (10 choose 5).
The bar code symbologies known as U.P.C., EAN, Code 11 and Codabar are all bar code symbology standards which support only numeric data characters, and a few special characters such as “+” and “−”. The U.P.C. symbology is both a bar code standard, as well as an industry standard, in that it has been adopted by industry in a standard application (consumer goods). The bar code standard Code 39 was the first alphanumeric bar code symbology standard developed. However, it was limited to 43 characters.
Code 93 is an improvement over Code 39. Code 93 is a continuous bar code symbology employing four element widths. Each Code 93 symbol has nine modules that may be either black or white (either a bar or a space). Each symbol in the Code 93 standard contains three bars and three spaces (six elements), whose total length is nine modules long. Code 93, having nine modules and three bars per symbol is thus a (9,3) symbology which has 56 possible characters (8 choose 5). For edge-to-edge decoding reasons, the Code 93 symbology standard defines only 48 unique symbols, and thus is able to define 47 characters in its character set plus a start/stop code. The 47 characters include the numeric characters 0-9, the alphabetic characters A-Z, some additional symbols and four shift codes.
The computer industry uses its own character encoding standards, namely, the American Standard Code for Information Interchange (ASCII). ASCII defines a character set containing 128 characters and symbols. Each character in ASCII is represented by a unique 7-bit code. Since Code 39 and Code 93 are limited to fewer than 50 characters, these standards are inadequate to uniquely represent each ASCII character. The four shift codes in Code 93, however, allow this standard to unambiguously represent all 128 ASCII characters. One drawback is that a series of two Code 93 symbols are required to represent a single ASCII character. Thus, bar code labels representing characters in the ASCII character set are twice as long as labels representing characters in the Code 93 character set.
New bar code symbology standards, such as Code 128, were developed to encode the complete ASCII character set, however, these standards suffer from certain shortcomings, including requiring shift codes or other preceding symbols to represent certain characters. All of these symbologies require increased processing time and overhead to process the entire ASCII character set.
The computer industry has grown beyond the limits of the ASCII character set. As the computer markets have grown, the need has also arisen to support additional languages not defined by the ASCII character set. New character sets were developed to accommodate clusters of characters in related languages. The original 7-bit ASCII character set was expanded to 8 bits thus providing an additional 128 characters or data values. This additional 128 set of data values (the “upper 128” or “extended ASCII”) allowed for additional characters present in the related romance languages (i.e., French, German, Spanish, etc.) to be represented. The only linear symbologies capable of encoding 8-bit data are Code 128, and “Code 53”, which are described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,027, entitled “Single Width Bar Code Symbology With Full Character Set Utilizing Robust Start/Stop Characters and Error Detection Scheme.”
There are various known ways of printing a bar code with a conventional laser or thermal inkjet printer. In one example, barcode bitmaps are stored in the memory of a font server or on a memory card. As understood by the present inventors, a number of vendors, such as S.A.X. Software GmbH, sell dedicated barcode font servers that replace barcode identifiers in a job with barcode bitmaps. It is further understand that Hewlett-Packard Corp. markets a memory card, or DIMM that serves a function similar to that of the dedicated barcode server. While dedicated barcode font servers or memory cards can be very effective for their intended purpose, they can be undesirable in terms of cost and flexibility. For instance, bitmap storage can be very memory intensive and the use of a memory card can lead to a significant incremental cost for one or more printers. More particularly, since the memory card is sold on a machine-by-machine basis, the owner of a fleet of network printing devices can end up incurring considerable cost for many cards.
Xerox is believed to be selling a solution in which a PostScript® interpreter is provided with a dedicated macro for binding barcode fonts. In practice, barcode font related information is embedded in a PostScript® job and the macro generates a font call for each barcode contemplated by the job. This Xerox approach is well suited for its intended purpose; however, since the approach is to be used exclusively in a PostScript® environment, it cannot be used with non-PostScript® interpreters. Moreover, difficulty can be encountered in using non-PostScript® fonts. Finally, programming flexibility is hampered by the fact that the macro runs on an interpreter platform, as opposed to an operating system platform. It would be desirable to provide a barcode font binding arrangement that is well suited for use with multiple interpreter and barcode font types
In accordance with one aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a barcode printing system. The barcode printing system includes an interpreter with an interpreter program. The interpreter converts each one of multiple print jobs from a job language format to a printable format for consumption by a printer. At least one of the multiple print jobs includes an identifier indicating that the at least one of the multiple print jobs includes barcode printing related information. The barcode printing system further includes a barcode font call-processing program, with the barcode font call processing program being separate from the interpreter program. An interpreter support system is communicatively coupled with the interpreter and also communicates with the barcode font call-processing program. Each one of the multiple print jobs is read by the interpreter support system and, when the interpreter support system reads the at least one of the multiple print jobs, the at least one of the multiple print jobs is processed with said barcode font call processing program so that a barcode font call, for delivery by the interpreter support system to the interpreter, is generated by the barcode font call processing program.
In accordance with another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a barcode font call processing system adapted for use with a printing system including an interpreter with an interpreter program. The interpreter converts each one of multiple print jobs from a job language format to a printable format for consumption by a printer. At least one of the multiple print jobs includes an identifier indicating that the at least one of the multiple print jobs includes bar code printing related information. The barcode font call processing system includes a barcode font call-processing program, with the barcode font call processing program being separate from the interpreter program. An interpreter support system is communicatively coupled with the interpreter and also communicates with the barcode font call-processing program. Each one of the multiple print jobs is read by the interpreter support system and, when the interpreter support system reads the at least one of the multiple print jobs, the at least one of the multiple print jobs is processed with said barcode font call processing program so that a barcode font call, for delivery by the interpreter support system to the interpreter, is generated by the barcode font call processing program.
In accordance with yet another aspect of the disclosed embodiments, there is provided a method for use with a printing system including an interpreter with an interpreter program. The interpreter converts each one of a first print job and a second print job from a job language format to a printable format for consumption by a marking engine. The method includes (a) interpreting the first print job with the interpreter, (b) providing a barcode font call processing program, said barcode font call processing program being separate from the interpreter program, identifying the second print job as a barcode job, and (c) processing the second print job with the barcode font call processing program to generate a barcode font call.